Minnie Maddox cares deeply for mothers and their babies - she makes a living by taking in unwanted children and finding them good adoptive homes - and is delighted for her neighbour when she finally becomes a mother after decades of trying. But when the baby dies of natural causes while under her roof and knowing her neighbour will be devastated Minnie swaps it with one of the infants in her care. Now seventeen Jewel Nightingale knows nothing of her true origins. But assaulted by her hateful cousin and making the dreadful discovery that she is pregnant she faces a desperate dilemma.